You ask me what I like about Texas....

It's the Llano River in Castell. Sitting in it's cool, clear waters, drinking beer w/our new found friends. Just enjoying life. We met Randy who is the owner of the Castell General Store. He also has a ranch house that belonged to his great-great-great-grandfather that he uses as a guest house. It is about 75 yards down to the Llano River from the house. We stop by the store for a beer or two, drive over to the house and get in the river for a while. It doesn't get any better than that...

What made me scream like a little girl????

A killer salamander! We were cleaning the windows last week, taking screens off, cleaning both sides of the windows and also inside the track where all the dirt collects. I raised one of our bedroom windows when something jumped at me! It was the killer salamander. Yes, I screamed like I had seen a snake or a killer or something horrible. We (Don) finally captured the monster in a jar and released him back to nature. I forgot about all the little creatures down here in Texas. It is good to be home....

June 19, 2008 ~ Views of the Colorado River

These photos were taken at a scenic overlook on RR1431 that goes between Kingsland and Marble Falls. It is at the top of a huge hill about 2 miles from our house. I'm sure you will be seeing more pics from this area. Wish we lived in one of the houses at the bottom of the hill at the edge of the lake!!!

June 12, 2008 ~ Owls

This is the mama owl

Baby owl

A couple of days ago I heard something that sounded like an animal in distress. I thought it might be a baby deer that had lost it's mother or something. We have seen several tiny baby deer around here this week. Some look as if they were just a few hours old. Last night Don and I were sitting outside on the back porch when I heard the sound again, except this time it was coming from one of our cottonwood trees about 15 yards from us. We finally saw that there were two owls in the tree. Don did the research to find which kind of owl we had. And after listening to several breeds, we agreed that we had a pair of the Western Screech Owls. I think it must be a mama owl and one of her babies. My scientific conclussion is that she was trying to teach her baby to fly. The both finally flew to another tree after about 15-20 minutes. The pictures aren't so great due to the fact it was getting pretty dark out and I didn't want to use a flash and scare them off.

Moving Day ~ May 31, 2008

So how can two people that have nothing fill a 26' U-Haul truck??? Because we have lot's of crap! When we started packing I was a little more willing to keep things. I got tired of packing in a hurry. So I became less sentimental towards things. Yet, we still filled the truck almost full! Amazing. This move has been full of ups and downs. From not knowing where we were moving to until the week before the move, to not sure if the U-Haul truck we had rented was going to be available until the night before the move (NOTE: Don't plan on moving the first weekend in June.) But after all was said and done, here we are in Kingsland, TX. Yes, it's good to be back in Texas. And to everyone that says there isn't that much difference between Texas and Oklahoma, you're right there isn't that much difference. So go ahead and give it a whirl. However, no one will come visit you in Oklahoma. Looking forward to getting our house built on our land. Hopefully that will be in the next 18-24 months. We will see.

May 17, 2008 ~ Heroe's Park Dedication Ceremony

These pictures were taken after the dedication ceremony of Heroe's Park. It was built in honor and rememberance of the fallen firefighters and police officers in Arlington. Those who died in the line of duty. My oldest brother, Capt. Ron McAndrew was one of those honored. His last call came on November 14, 1990. He left a wife and two young children behind. Plus my parents, my brother Reed and myself. There aren't too many days that go by that I don't think of him in some way.

Making up for lost time....

Since I haven't posted anything for a while (not procrastinating, just REALLY busy) I've got a few pics I want to share. These are all from Mother's Day weekend.
Caden at the park. Look at those cute freckles.

Madisyn loves the camera!

Cory and Krystal with Caden and Madisyn

Courtney at the park.

Yellow cactus flowers from our land. It's a good year for cactus.

At El Patio in Austin with Aunt Polly, and Bengt and Steffan from Sweden. They were headed back to Sweden the following week. Not sure when we will get to see them again.

My mom on Mother's Day. She doesn't like to have her picture taken, but I think this one turned out pretty well. She will be 85 in July.

Mom and Aunt Polly. We brought her back to Hamilton with us so she could celebrate Mother's Day with all of us. This is my mom's younger sister. She is 82. I hope I age as well as the two of them.

May 26, 2008 ~ Jada

We were invited over to Lee and Mary Akins' house for supper last Thursday. I told Mary that I would come out and take some pics of Jada before we left for Texas, so we planned it for that night as well. The wind was horrendous. I managed to get Jada to cooperate for about 15 minutes and that was about all she wanted. She is a beautiful little girl and full of energy. She really loves Don. They are a great family and we are going to miss them when we leave.

From the Wildflower Tour

This is a picture that I tweaked for the photo class I am taking. Wish I had read the lesson prior to tonight. I submitted the original picture in a wildflower photo contest in the Austin American Statesman. However, it was somewhat washed out. Oh well. Just another case of procrastination....

Favorite picture from Stingaree

I think this is my favorite picture from the festival. Ray Wylie Hubbard was singing "Wanna Rock 'n Roll", which always kicks ass.